Hoaxer who smeared Obama as ‘gay’ found dead
A notorious hoaxer who fabricated claims that Barack Obama is gay has been found dead.
According to CBS, Paul Horner was found dead in his home in Arizona on September 18.
Horner was behind a number of fake news websites that pumped out viral content credited with having a significant impact on the 2016 US presidential election.
Many of the hoaxes were aimed at Hillary Clinton.
One of the most pervasive hoaxes from Horner’s website was a viral story that claimed a Secret Service agent had outed President Obama as a gay Muslim in a “tell-all book”.
It quoted a fictional former agent also called Paul Horner, who claimed to “reveal what goes on inside the White House when the news cameras are turned off”.
The fake article claimed: “Horner told Senior Political Analyst Tom Downey that he is one-hundred-percent positive that President Obama is not only gay, but a radical Muslim as well.”
“‘Everyone on the inside knows that Obama is gay and a Muslim, it is common knowledge’, Horner said.
“‘I saw many men coming and going from Obama’s room, at all hours. I would say a good portion of the men, over fifty-percent, were Muslim’.”
He claimed: “Obama’s insatiable lust for homosexual liaisons is like nothing I’ve ever witnessed. We’re talking 10-15 partners in a single day.”
An investigation by Buzzfeed found that sites such as Horner’s outperformed many genuine news outlets during the election campaign, as conspiracy theories ran rampant among Trump supporters.
CBS reports that an autopsy found no signs of foul play.
A Sheriff’s Office spokesman said Horner had a history of prescription drug abuse and that “evidence at the scene suggested this could be an accidental overdose.”
Conspiracy theorist radio host Alex Jones previously claimed that the Obamas were responsible for the death of Joan Rivers, because she claimed the President was gay.
A month before her death in 2014, Joan Rivers made one last characteristically-offensive quip about the President.
When asked whether the US would see a gay president, she said: “We already have it with Obama, so let’s just calm down. You know Michelle is a tr**ny. A transgender, we all know.”
The comic died within weeks of the comments – and the late Ms Rivers would probably be highly amused to hear that the timing of her death sparked a conspiracy theory that the First Lady really is transgender.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of InfoWars doubled down, insisting that the Obamas were complicit in the comedian’s death because she knew too much.
He said: “[Michelle Obama]’s shoulders are too wide… we’ve had doctors on about this. She always has this pooch, so she’s either wearing a codpiece or has genitalia.
“She looks like a man! Lady looks like a dude! It’s true.”
“Deader than a doornail in a routine operation where basically she had fire poured down her throat and was a fire-breathing goblin. Dead on arrival. Shoot your mouth off, honey, you will die.”
